Country profile: Czech Republic

After the birth of Czechoslovakia on 28 October 1918, the country first used a white and red flag, in the colours of Bohemia. As it was identical to the flag of Poland, it was replaced by a new design, chosen from many proposals: that of Jaroslav Kursa, an archivist at the Ministry of the Interior.

The law of 30 March 1920 adopted the current flag: two horizontal bands, white and red, with a blue triangle at the hoist. Banned during the German occupation from 1939 to 1945, it was restored at the Liberation.

When Czechoslovakia was dissolved on 1 January 1993, the Czech Republic kept this flag while Slovakia adopted its own, even though the dissolution law had provided that the successor states would not use the federal symbols.

The colours of the Czech flag are heraldic in origin:

• White and red: the colours of the arms of Bohemia, a white lion on a red field.
• Blue: the colour of the arms of Moravia, a red and white chequered eagle on a blue field; in Czechoslovak times it was also associated with Slovakia.

The blue triangle was first introduced to distinguish the flag from that of Poland.

In the first proposals, the blue triangle was to extend over only a third of the length of the flag; the commission finally chose to extend it to the middle.

The Czech flag resembles that of the Philippines, which also combines two horizontal bands and a triangle at the hoist, but with a sun and stars.

Czech supporters, especially at ice hockey matches, a sport in which the country became Olympic champion in 1998, have made the flag a familiar sight in arenas.